Groundbreaking Publications

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS

Explore some of the groundbreaking reports issued by the CSG Justice Center in the past two decades.

By Katy Albis, Darby Baham and Leslie Griffin

Twenty years ago in June, a group of dedicated criminal justice stakeholders and thought leaders released the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project report. This report outlined 47 policy statements to guide legislators, practitioners and advocates as they work to improve responses to people with mental illnesses who have contact with the criminal justice system. Since that first-of-its-kind report, the CSG Justice Center has created nearly 600 print and digital publications. Each of them is centered on what the Justice Center does best: bringing together key leaders from various impacted systems to reach consensus on evidence-based policy and practice recommendations. Here is a small sample of groundbreaking Justice Center reports.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/consensus-project.

Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council: Charting the Safe and Successful Return of Prisoners to the Community (2005)

This report was developed following an unprecedented, bipartisan collaboration among 100 leading elected officials, policymakers and practitioners seeking to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for people reentering their communities from incarceration. It provides a comprehensive set of recommendations made up of 35 policy statements, each describing consensus-based principles to underpin reentry initiatives.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/re-entry-council.

The National Summit on Justice Reinvestment and Public Safety: Addressing Recidivism, Crime, and Corrections Spending (2011)

Following the first national summit on Justice Reinvestment and Public Safety at the U.S. Capitol in 2010, this publication was developed to highlight the promising practices and latest thinking on criminal justice policy, including four key principles about what works to reduce recidivism and increase public safety.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/justice-reinvestment.

The School Discipline Report: Strategies from the Field to Keep Students Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System (2014)

Staff worked with more than 100 advisors from across the country to develop the more than two dozen policies and 60 recommendations included in this report. It also draws on real-world strategies and research to promote multidisciplinary approaches to reducing the millions of youth suspended, expelled and arrested each year while creating safe and supportive schools for educators and students.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/school-discipline.

Reducing the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jail: Six Questions County Leaders Need to Ask (2017)

This is the foundational report for the national Stepping Up initiative and serves as a blueprint for counties to assess their existing efforts to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jail by offering specific questions and progress-tracking measures. It helps counties develop and implement a systems-level, data-driven plan that can lead to measurable reductions.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/six-questions.

50-State Report on Public Safety: Tools and Strategies to Help States Reduce Crime, Recidivism, and Costs (2018)

This data report was the Justice Center’s first fully web-based report, combining data analyses with practical examples to help policymakers craft impactful strategies to address their states’ specific public safety challenges. It includes over 300 state-by-state data visualizations, more than 100 examples of states’ public safety innovations, three goals, 12 strategies and 37 action items policymakers can select from to focus on issues most relevant to their communities.

Confined and Costly: How Supervision Violations Are Filling Prisons and Burdening Budgets (2019)

The result of a data analysis effort that engaged corrections and community supervision leaders in all 50 states, this report offers the first complete picture of how probation and parole violations make up states’ prison populations. Among other stark findings, the report reveals that 45% of state prison admissions stemmed from probation and parole violations, costing states more than $9 billion annually.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/confined-costly.

Behavioral Health Diversion Interventions: Moving from Individual Programs to a Systems-Wide Strategy (2019)

The foundational report for the CSG Justice Center’s diversion portfolio, this brief offers a conceptual framework for creating a continuum of diversion opportunities that span the community’s criminal justice system.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/diversion.

After the Sentence, More Consequences: A National Report of Barriers to Work (2021)

This digital and print report presents national and state-by-state overviews of the nearly 30,000 state and federal consequences of conviction that directly block people from being hired or create barriers to obtaining occupational licenses essential for certain jobs.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/after-sentence.

Reducing Structural Barriers to School and Work for People with Juvenile Records (2021)

This digital and print report outlines findings and recommendations from an unprecedented analysis of education and employment barriers that people with juvenile records face as a result of state laws and public and private admissions and hiring practices. It also highlights five key areas that policymakers can champion to reduce legal barriers to education and employment for people with juvenile records.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/juvenile-consequences.

Expanding First Response: A Toolkit for Community Responder Programs (2021)

This first-of-its-kind resource features an array of materials to help local communities and states looking to establish or sustain community responder programs. Informed by existing models across the country, the toolkit includes practical strategies, field-based examples and instructive videos.

READ THE REPORT: csgovts.info/first-response.

Champion of Second Chances

MARSHA CURRY-NIXON brings lived experience to the CSG Justice Center Advisory Board.

By Dr. Dion Clark

Marsha Curry-Nixon is the first CSG Justice Center Advisory Board member with firsthand experience in the criminal justice system. Anyone who meets Curry-Nixon knows that she is open about her time being incarcerated and how, after incarceration, she’s been dedicated to helping others get—and make the most of—second chances. And she’s made service a family affair: four of her children work with her at Amiracle4sure, the organization she founded to improve people’s lives after time in the justice system. For Curry-Nixon, it’s all about helping people. After multiple attempts to end her own life, she said she realized that there must be “a purpose and a reason” why she was still breathing. Part of fulfilling her purpose means sitting down at every table she’s invited to so that she can champion the value of a second chance. Sadly, she’s found that even when she’s invited, her input isn’t always welcomed. Fortunately, Curry-Nixon says, that’s not the case at the CSG Justice Center.

“The CSG Justice Center creates opportunities for leaders in the field to join in the conversation and actually be able to impact the change,” she said. Former CSG Justice Center Advisory Board chair and head of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, John Wetzel, brought Curry-Nixon onto the board originally. In the early days, he had to remind her often that she belonged in this space. Now she confidently lifts her voice to advocate for others with experience in the justice system, and her message is clear. “I’m better because I got the supports I needed,” she said. “We have to provide the supports people need so they can get better.”